Flames
by Illustriousgiraffe
Summary: Donna Noble is just an ordinary woman with a large gap in her memory, but one day she is dragged to an exhibit about Pompeii by a friend and starts to feel as though things are not so ordinary. Can the Doctor reach her before she remembers? Friendship between the 10th doctor and Donna, no romance. Includes an angry Sylvia and a frantic Wilf.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first Doctor who fanfic so go easy on me. I have so much trouble accepting what happens to Donna in Journey's end and it's SOOOOO sad, she's my favorite companion and I can't deal with how short her time was with The Doctor was. Anyway, this isn't really a fix-it for was happened it's more of a continuation of what happened and something that could maybe happen in the future. I'm not British so please forgive me if I sound stupid using any British terms. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Donna was not amused. She had been with two girlfriends shopping and one of them, an over excited woman named June, had dragged the other two to an unknown destination, one that Donna had never really appreciated much.

So here she stood, arms crossed and lips pursed, staring at June with one eyebrow raised. Lily, her other friend, seemed to think it was a daft idea as well, going to the museum on such a lovely day, but that was June, she'd miss most anything to learn something new. At one time in her life Donna would have never befriended such a 'nerd', but lately she found that she enjoyed the company of more curious, intelligent people rather than the kind of friends she had been keeping before. She really didn't know where it had come from, this urge to be a better, smarter person, to look at people's wits not their clothes or makeup, but she knew that she definitely had more friends because of it.

"Oh come one, it'll be amazing, it's all about Pompeii!" June all but squealed, taking the hands of her still skeptical friends and dragging them up the stone steps.

"I suppose we could learn a thing or two," Donna said.

"Yeah it'll do our wallets good to stay out of the shops for a few hours!" Added Lily.

The three women laughed, looking up at the big banner that hung from the stone façade of the building. It read: Pompeii: The Untold Story in fiery letters that for some reason made Donna feel rather claustrophobic, like the letters were actually on fire. She shook the feeling off and averted her eyes from the banner, continuing to walk with her mates into the museum.

"It's all very interesting, you know, their civilization was so advanced!" June rattled off.

"Yeah," Donna said dreamily, "it was."

June and Lily looked at each other and started to laugh.

"You talk as though you've been there yourself!" Lily sputtered, giggling profusely.

"I'm sorry, what?" Donna said, not really sure what they were on about.

"You alright Donna?" June asked, "something wrong up there?" June said, tapping Donna's head, "Anybody home?"

"Oh stop it!" She replied, batting her friend's hand away playfully, "I'm fine, just zoned out for a spell."

"Come on you two, let's get tickets," Lily said, directing their linked mass over to the admission desk.

In a matter of minutes they were strolling down the overly air-conditioned hallways to the corner of the museum where the special exhibit was taking place.

"It's so amazing," June began, "they started another archeological dig in all the areas that were covered in lava, found mounds of artifacts, and I hear there's a special piece that they found miles away, in a different country even, supposedly Rome, but it has the same motif and language as all the excavated sites in Pompeii. It's incredible!" June said, continuing to rant.

Donna found herself unusually interested in what June was saying, she was intrigued by the story of the strange artifact that had been found somewhere far from the doomed city-state, and for some reason felt as though she had heard such a story before. That seemed to happen to Donna a lot now, a feeling of familiarity with many things she knew nothing about, snagging feelings in the back of her mind that were telling her that she knew more than she did. Ever since that strange gap appeared in her memory she felt as though something had filled it rather than just the forgetfulness of a busy temp.

Soon the trio found themselves in a darkened room. The exhibit was rather large and had many winding pathways that skirted around multitudes of pedestals and showcases. The whole room was alight with red spotlights that shone on the ground for effect, emulating the feeling of a volcano.

Rubbish job they did of it, thought Donna, what kind of volcano casts that kind of light? For some reason Donna had the perfect of idea of what color the light of a volcano cast, and this wasn't even coming close, well, stranger things had been in her mind before.

The women walked around slowly, often stopping to read the small tags that sat underneath and beside all the artifacts, enjoying the cool museum air and each other's company.

An eerie music was playing from speakers that were placed all around the room, it had heavy drums and a constantly changing rumbling sounds in the background that were meant to sound somewhat like a volcanic eruption. On top of the heavier sounds were low voices singing an unknown melody in words that could not be picked out. It all made for a rather nice effect.

As Donna meandered around she came to an old astrological chart that had somehow survived the flames, it was beautifully intricate and made her think of her Gramp. She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone, quickly writing a text to her Gramp:

_At the museum. You would love some of this stuff. It's all about Pompeii, maybe I'll take you in a few days, it's closing in two weeks._

Donna clicked send and stuffed her phone back into her purse. She had learned to appreciate her Gramp so much more since the gap in her memory had appeared, and she really did enjoy spending time with him. The temp was beginning to realize that he wouldn't be around forever and she should take advantage of the time she had with him, he was the one of the nicest men she knew after all.

Donna found herself being dragged along by June as soon as her phone was out of her hands, the hyper woman had just found what was according to her 'the best thing in the show' but Donna couldn't very well believe her when they had only been there 20 minutes and June had already said the same exact thing about four other artifacts.

The ginger shook her head and smiled, "What is it this time? Another rock?"

Wilf had been sitting up on the hill once again, watching the sky. Even though it was daytime and the stars had yet to show themselves Wilf simply enjoyed the peace and quiet up there, and you never know, one day he might just find that that infamous blue box was flying around up there in broad daylight.

The older man had had a somewhat outlandish fantasy ever since his little girl had returned, memory wiped and life in danger, that The Doctor would find some way of fixing her problem, of giving her back the memories. He knew it was impossible but he always fantasized that one day The Doctor would return with a solution to Donna's problem and she could go traveling once more. She had been so happy then, and Wilf had never seen her as quick and sharp as when she was with The Doctor. Now, although she retained some of the lessons and a bit of the demeanor she had picked up during her travels, she seemed almost empty, like she wasn't reaching her full potential.

Wilf jumped a bit in his chair when he heard a beeping noise go off. He calmed down when he realised it was just his phone. As he reached for it he tried in vain to remember if that noise was the one that meant he had someone phoning him or if it was one of those text things, he had quite the fight with Donna a few weeks ago about his incapability to use a phone and he really was trying to improve.

He fumbled with the buttons after he had managed to untangle the phone from his pocket, opening the small flip phone and putting on his glasses to read the small text.

_At the museum._ Wilf read the first part of the text, that was nice, it was always good for Donna to be learning something new, bright thing that she was.

_You would love some of this stuff._ There it was, that nicer side of Donna that had stayed even after her memories were suppressed.

_It's all about Pompeii, maybe I'll take you in a few days, it's closing in two weeks._

Wilf had been perfectly calm up until reading the final segment of the text, when he had read it the phone had nearly fallen from his hands. Just before leaving The Doctor had given them a general overview of what he and Donna had done, both to tell them how amazing their daughter/granddaughter was and to inform them of topics they should avoid talking about with her, a big one was Pompeii, the first place they had gone together, and possibly one of the most memorable and traumatic.

Wilf ran down the hill and into the house, covering the distance faster than he ever had before, dialing Donna's number as he did. She might not be in danger, but if she saw anything too familiar she could die, so Wilf knew time was definitely of the essence at the present.

Sylvia was in the kitchen and started berating him for running in and 'scaring her half to death', but the old man simply shushed her frantically and ran into the living room. She stood there with a look of shock and anger on her face, but said no more.

After listening to the ringing sound for what felt like billions of light years, Donna's voice came on the line:

"Hey Gramp, did you not see my text? I'm at the museum I can't talk right now."

"Donna honey, sweety you have to leave right now, I'll come over in the car and pick you up."

"Don't be daft Gramp, I'm nearly at the end of the exhibit, whatever you need me to do I can do it after. Now Goodbye-"

"Wait, Donna, please. Em-er, it's your mother, she, um, she fell down the stairs!" Wilf said, trying to think of a good enough excuse to get his granddaughter home.

"No I didn't," Sylvia yelled from the kitchen, "What are you on about Dad?"

Wilf ignored her question and returned his attention to Donna. "Yes, yes she did, she's delusional from the fall." Wilf said, sounding desperate.

"Of course she did Gramp, she's always so clumsy, but I'm sure mum can wait to be dramatic and fall down the stairs when I get home. Now, I have to go, June is pestering me. Love you, bye." Some giggling could be heard on the other end of line before the connection was lost.

"Dad," Sylvia called in, "What was that all about?"

Wilf walked into the kitchen and looked at his daughter, the panic evident on his face. "We need to call The Doctor."

* * *

**So, what do you think? Should I continue?**

**If you have any ideas or comments or suggestions let me know, and please review if you have the time or inclination!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello! Thank you for all the positive feedback on this story! Just in case you weren't aware this is with the 10th doctor, I don't really know when it could have happened but some time when he was alone again. I got all the information on Pompeii from wikipedia, forgive me if I am wrong on any account. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Donna and her friends were about halfway through the exhibit when Wilf had called, and after Donna had hung up on him they had had the laughing fit of the century. Donna was smiling for at least 10 mins after the whole ordeal, her Gramp was so insane sometimes, she often wondered if he should be committed to an insane asylum

Afterwards, June had grabbed the other two and shoved them into a dark room with a screen, in which a documentary-type short film was playing on a loop. Neither woman had protested and all three of them took a seat on the carpeted benches that sat in neat little rows in the small room.

Donna sat with her purse in her lap staring at the screen and leaning slightly on Lily, who sat beside her. They had caught the documentary just in time, it had started over when they walked in so there was nothing much to catch up on as the booming voice of the narrator clambered into the room.

"A natural disaster that stayed hidden from the world for thousands of years, an undiscovered tragedy, a treasure trove of preserved artifacts, a land lost in time . . ."

The powerful voice was accompanied with footage of various modern day eruptions and some animated sequences meant to depict what Pompeii may have looked like.

"4 to 6 meters of ash and dried magma separated this complex society from the world until the late 16th century. More than 20,000 people lived in the city-state at the time Vesuvius erupted. For months before the eruption earthquakes had been a rather frequent occurrence in the area, causing casualties of their own and inflicting much damage on the city-state. The Pompeiians did not take this as a warning though, they mistook it for the anger of the gods . . ."

Donna found herself nodding her head a random intervals during the whole thing, as though she knew what the narration was talking about and completely agreed, as though she had been there. In fact, throughout the whole film she felt an unexplainable twinge of guilt nagging at her, like she had something to be sorry for, something big, something very very bad. She tried to pin it on yelling at her Gramp, she could feel guilty for that, but she didn't, not really, because he always understood. So what did she feel bad for?

The narration went on to talk about how the bodies of men women and children were found encased in ash, their figures perfectly preserved. One particular image of that showed a woman clutching a child pulled at Donna's heartstrings,_ I could have saved them_, she thought. But as soon as it was present in her mind she considered committing _herself_ to an insane asylum rather than her Gramp, how could she have done anything, it's not like she was there.

Donna was shaken from her thoughts by gentle touch to her arm, she glanced up to see Lily looking at her with concern, "Are you alright love?"

Donna looked at her funny, "What do you mean? Of course I'm alright." Donna said, a bit shocked that her own voice was shaking.

June piped up, "You-you're crying, are you sure you're okay?

Donna looked at them like they had just sprouted wings, "Course I'm fine, and I'm not-" She cut herself off when she lifted a hand to her eyes and found that it came back wet and covered in smeared mascara, "crying . . ."

Lily put an arm around her, "Do you wanna talk about it? Is something wrong at home? Boy problems?"

Donna let her friend keep an arm around her, because honestly, she couldn't really say she was alright, she was crying for no reason. Sure, the film was rather sad, but it shouldn't have made her cry, it happened thousands of years ago after all.

"What the _hell_ is wrong with me?" Donna asked with a smile in her voice, it was rather amusing, all this, besides Donna Noble was not one to be taken down with a few unexplained tears, she was the most important woman in the universe! _Okay_, thought Donna, _that may be going a little too far-_

Her thoughts were cut off when a sharp pain hit her in the back of the head, making her double over on the bench.

She clutched her head and sat back up, the pain subsiding to a small throb. "Have either of you got an aspirin?" She asked.

June had a miniature wrestling match with her bag and produced a small white capsule when she had prevailed.

Donna took it graciously and pulled a plastic water bottle from her own bag, downing the aspirin with a few gulps of water. She hoped it wouldn't take too long to work, she hated having headaches.

* * *

Wilf had had to go through quite an ordeal to reach The Doctor. First he had to use the computer, again, technology was not one of his strong suits, to find the out the telephone number of Martha Jones, the lady who had almost had to blow up the earth, and get a hold of her. Once he had called her he had to get her to call The Doctor and explain what was happening. Then she had to phone Wilf back and tell him that she had reached The Doctor, and then she had to call said Doctor again when he hadn't shown up in the next five minutes like he said he would.

Finally, the TARDIS teleported into the living room of the Noble's and The Doctor came running out, looking quite nervous and ruffled, thus ending the communications fiasco.

"What is he-What are YOU doing in my living room? Go park that thing outside right this instant!" Sylvia started.

"Listen to me, unless you want your daughter to die, you will let me do whatever I have to to help her, and that includes parking the TARDIS in your living room!" He shot back.

Sylvia grumbled but she shut up all the same.

"Hello Wilf!" The Doctor said with smile, hugging the older, yet technically younger, man.

When Wilf pulled away he began to speak nervously, "I don't know what to do Doctor. She's at a special exhibit at the museum about Pompeii and she won't leave."

"Donna at a museum?" The Doctor asked, scrunching up his face in confusion, "why didn't you just call her and tell her to leave?" The Doctor asked, "Why do you need me? I'll just remind her of well . . . me."

"I tried calling her," Wilf said desperately, "but she just thought I was being bonkers, she hung up on me."

"Same old Donna." The Doctor smiled, "Well why don't we try and call her again?"

Wilf stood frozen for a moment, he never would get used to The Doctor's speedy way of talking, before pulling out his mobile and ringing Donna again.

Wilf tried putting it on speaker, but ended up almost accidentally calling 999, The Doctor took matters into his own hands and pressed the speakerphone button, kneeling in front of the coffee table the phone had been placed on.

Donna's voice came on over the line, "I'm busy right now please leave a message!" It was her voice mail.

The Doctor promptly hung up and called again, cursing in some alien language that Wilf didn't understand.

Donna must have purposefully ignored the last call because this time she picked up, thinking it must be important if Gramp tried to phone twice.

"Gramp, I told you I can't talk, especially right now, I'm watching a documentary." Her voice sounded rather quiet and it was more garbled than it should be, even through the bad speaker of the phone.

"Sweety are you alright?" Wilf asked.

"I don't know, it' wacky, I'm crying for no reason," She laughed, "I think I've finally lost it, I've got a nasty headache too, but I took an aspirin."

Wilf looked up at The Doctor, who returned his gaze, they both knew what that headache meant. It meant her brain was trying to remember, and was succeeding.

"Anyway, if nothing's wrong, I have to go, It's rude to talk during a film. Bye!"

"Donn wait!" both The Doctor and Wilf called at the same time, but it was too late, Donna had already hung up.

"You see, she won't listen." Wilf said in a pleading voice.

The Doctor looked down, a sad smile on his face, "Some things never change."

"What are we going to do?" Wilf asked, slowly standing up from where he had been sitting by the coffee table.

The Doctor stayed silent.

"Doctor?" Wilf asked.

"What do you want me to do! I can't very well go up to her and help! If she sees me she'll die!" The Doctor screamed, standing up abruptly, his temper taking over, but he wasn't angry at Wilf or at Donna or even Sylvia, he was angry at himself. This was all his fault, and he was pretty much powerless to do anything. The one person he longed to be able to help, to be able to simply look at, could not look back.

Wilf looked at the carpeting at his feet, "Well if you can't do anything then I'm going to help my little girl!" Wilf said determinately, walking towards the door and grabbing the car keys from their hook on the wall.

The Doctor stood there dejectedly, after over 900 years of being alive he couldn't control his temper, pathetic.

"You know, she thought you were amazing, she thought you could do anything. I guess she was wrong." Sylvia said, retreating back into the kitchen.

Those words stung, but she was right, he was useless and powerless. But when did that ever stop him? He could just hear Donna yelling at him, _what do you mean you can't do it?! You're The Doctor!_

The Doctor straightened up, how many impossible things had he done in his lifetime? More than he could count, what was one more impossible feat?

"Wilf wait!" called The Doctor.

The old man turned around, he had been about to open the door.

"The TARDIS will be faster."

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**So how was the second chapter? Im planning on having one, maybe two more chapters after this one. **

**Thanks for reading, please tell me what you think! I can always use suggestions!**

**Have a nice day/night/summer/idk**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the wait, here is chapter three of ****_Flames_****, I got a very good response to this story, thanks for all the feedback! This chapter took me a very long time to write and it's not my best but I think it's fine, please tell me if you catch any errors or something is confusing. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The three women slowly made their way out of the miniature theater, Donna rubbing her temples as she walked, her head still had a dull fire of an ache burning and she was rather upset that it wouldn't let her alone when all she wanted to do was have fun with her two friends.

Said friends were still eyeing Donna with concern, she had just had an inexplicable crying fit after all, and both of them felt as though she wasn't telling them something.

"Donna?" Lily inquired, "are you positive that you're alright? You know you can tell us anything, we'll help you through it."

Donna turned to her friends and smiled, the old Donna might have had an outburst at such prying words but the redhead knew her friends were just trying to help. She wished she could tell them what was the matter, the problem was just that though: she didn't know what was the matter. "Of course I know that, I don't have anything to tell. I'm as lost as you lot," She said, laughing and beginning to move back into the exhibit. "Now, let's forget all about it and look around at some more dusty artifacts, maybe we'll run into my mum!" She joked.

Lily and June laughed and continued on, all residual worry about the crying incident left in the theater where it started.

The only remaining reminder that something was amiss was the sharp pain in Donna's head, but she wasn't going to let that stop the most important woman in the universe!

* * *

The Doctor and Wilf had just run into the TARDIS and it was beginning to ebb away from the Noble living room when the door squeaked open and Sylvia ran in after them.

Wilf sighed.

The Doctor groaned.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, turning away in frustration and looking at the controls. If there was one person in the entire universe that could plow down The Doctor with sheer nagging, it was Sylvia Noble.

The woman wasn't even looking around at the bigger-on-the-inside time traveling machine she had just stepped into for the first time, she was instead glaring at the two men in front of her. If something wasn't going her way she had to make it happen according to her rules, no matter if she was in her kitchen or in a flying time traveling TARDIS, it didn't matter to her.

"If Donna's in danger I think I have a right to be here in this. . ." she gestured around at the TARDIS, "floating box thing!"

"Fine. Alright, you're right. Just don't get in the way." The Doctor said, still looking down at the controls. Then, almost as an afterthought, he began speaking again, straightening up and catching her eye: "Because if you tamper with things and put Donna at risk I will never, ever, forgive you."

Sylvia just stared at him, not looking at all shocked or even a little bit miffed, wearing her ever-resilient I-know-I'm-right face until The Doctor was forced to look away.

The TARDIS shook and jostled as it began it's short journey, almost shaking the older woman off her feet, "What are you doing? Do you even know how to fly this thing? You nearly knocked me over!" She whined.

"Sylvia," Wilf said in exasperation, "Now's not really the time."

"Oh be quiet! How do we even know he's going to the right place? Or time? What if we end up in the stone age?" She ranted, not stopping there, her words at this point were just being ignored by both men. She sounded not unlike a squawking jungle bird to The Doctor when he didn't listen to her words and just focused on the sound of her voice.

The TARDIS came to a rather unpleasant and abrupt halt and The Doctor feared turning his attention back to the squawking Sylvia bird to see what she had to say about his 'driving' skills.

The Doctor continued to ignore Donna's touchy mother and jogged over to the door yanking it open and poking his head out just to make sure he _hadn't_ landed them in the stone age. They seemed to be in a cramped supply closet. The Doctor opened up the closet door and took a look around. The thin man walked out when he was satisfied that this was modern day London, gesturing for his two passengers to do the same.

"See, same planet. Same time period, nothing to worry about," The Doctor said smugly, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking around.

He had expected no response from Sylvia, but was instead met with a somehow lowder squawk.

"We're on the other side of the Bloody museum!" She shouted, earning looks from many bystanders, it was strange enough that they had all just emerged from a supply closet, they didn't need any more unwanted attention so The Doctor steered them away and started walking.

In truth, although The Doctor seemed to be in a light mood, joking and acting like everything was fine, none of it was really planned. His mind was almost trying to make him act normally in an attempt to convince himself that nothing that bad was going on. But in reality this was one of the worst things that The Doctor had ever had to experienced, and he had no desire to watch the most important woman in the universe burn.

He supposed that was what he did, always acted like he knew what was happening, it was somehow easier than letting other people see that he wasn't as invincible as he appeared to be, but sometimes it was so very hard acting like he hadn't a care in the world.

That was what had been so special about Donna, she had been able to see through his act, she was a no nonsense woman, and she didn't care who _he_ thought he was, all that mattered was who _she_ thought he was.

So there stood The Doctor, looking ever in control, with a mini panic attack commencing in his vast mind. He had landed them the farthest they could possibly be from Donna in probably one of the most time sensitive cases he had ever experienced.

"Why don't we just get back in that flying box and move to the other side of the museum?" Sylvia nagged.

"The TARDIS is only so accurate, if it landed us here then that's probably as close as we can get." The Doctor would have gone on but he doubted that a technical explanation would be much appreciated by the group's own personal parrot. "So we better start running." He said instead, bolting his way down a busy corridor and leaving his two human companions to catch up.

"How does he even know where he's going?" Sylvia asked her father.

The older man simply shrugged and followed The Doctor as fast as he could, not checking to see if his daughter would follow.

* * *

Donna bowed her head after a particularly bad bout of stabbing pain danced it's way through her head. She had been looking at a rather strange piece of marble, one that she had trouble believing was from such ancient times. It was faded and green but had the faint outlines of what looked like a circuit board, she had found in quiet interesting and had been showing June when the pain had returned and hit her full force.

She couldn't help but feel like she had seen this before, she told herself that she was being silly, of course she had seen a circuit board before, they were in almost every piece of technology, maybe she needed to lie down . . .

A flash of an image filled her mind for a few milliseconds, a picture of a huge puzzle-like arrangement of the greens tiles, fitted together perfectly, all brand new and pristine, nothing like the worn and dusty artifact before her.

Donna gasped, standing up straighter and looking around, she had been a bit lost for a moment, she hoped she hadn't blacked out and done something stupid, but no one seemed to be looking at her so perhaps it was just her headache that was making her zone out.

The ginger decided it would probably be best if she walked away from the strange green tile and moved on, but she couldn't stop herself from turning back around and reading the label.

_This large marble tile was found in close proximity to Mount Vesuvius along with five others similar in shape and pattern. The designs are thought to be a primitive numerical system but these tiles are the only evidence of such a system discovered so far._

_Yeah, right,_ thought Donna,_ it's not even from earth._

_Wait, what?_

Donna's red curls bounced as she shook her head, what was wrong with her? Alien tiles? She was honestly beginning to think that her brain wasn't her own, why the hell was she thinking of all these outlandish things?

"Ooh Donna come look at this!" Lily called from a few feet away.

Donna walked over briskly, glad for the distraction. "Ooh, very posh," Donna exclaimed as she walked up to several mannequins wearing traditional Pompeian clothes. Some of the dresses were very pretty and all quite long.

June walked up behind both of them. "Aren't they beautiful! Isn't it strange though? Those floor length togas were considered short! Can you imagine lugging all that cloth around on you in the dead of summer?"

"Yeah, you'd sweat buckets," said Lily, "I think that you'd look nice in one Donna, maybe green with a gold sash." She said thoughtfully, looking from the mannequins to Donna.

"Purple," Donna mumbled.

"Sorry, what?" Lily asked.

"What? I didn't say anything," Donna replied, looking around confusedly.

"Yeah you did, I thought I heard you say purple," June said, looking at Lily.

"I can't imagine why I would just go around blurting out colors, I must be out of my bloody mind." She said laughing, although she really was beginning to get worried about her mental state, what would her mother think?

Lily and June joined in, laughing lightly, all of them trying not to acknowledge the strange things that were happening to Donna.

"Yeah, I guess you are right though," Lily said, "Purple would look quite nice on you, but I still think it would look smart with a gold sash,"

Donna made a sound of agreement,"Why can I picture that perfectly?" Donna asked rhetorically, because she could actually see herself in the exact outfit they were describing, it wasn't as though she was imagining what it would look like, she _knew_ how a purple toga with a gold waistband looked on her, she _remembered_ what it looked like.

"I don't know, too bad there are no Pompeian shops round here, eh?" June joked.

"Yeah, I'd sure buy one of those, maybe if it was shorter . . ." Lily said.

Donna knew Lily was still talking, her lips were moving, but she had stopped listening, for a new sound had been added to the ominous soundtrack that was playing in the exhibit, now Donna could swear she heard screams. Thousands of pained and terrified screeches of men, women, children all combined into one massive din of terror.

Donna sat down, the sheer force of the sound causing her great distress and making the pain come back. And then, as soon as it has started, it stopped, the screams of thousands suddenly silenced. The situation was eerily familiar.

The distressed woman looked around, shocked to find a couple with a young child standing in the spot her two friends had been standing seconds ago. She scanned her eyes across the remaining part of the exhibit, finding that her friends were standing in line to look at the last case in the show, she was taken aback, there were nearly 10 other pedestals and glass cases between the mannequins and the final artifact, how had they traveled so quickly? Had they skipped over all the other cases?

How long had she been listening to the screams?

Before she could contemplate her strange situation she heard a chorus of 'oh my god's and 'no way's before June's voice reached her ears:

"Donna! Come over here, you won't believe this!"

Donna groaned, heaving herself from the cool wooden bench in the corner and walking (somewhat unsteadily) to her overexcited mates.

"What are you two on about?" She half-asked half-moaned.

"Just-just come over here!" June all but squealed.

Donna rolled her eyes, what could possibly be so urgent? Something must have been up though because people were giving her sideways glances and whispering, looking intermittently at a stone slab that must have been the final mystery artifact. She pushed forward and read the sign above it.

_Pompeian Household Gods_

June grabbed on to Donna's arm, "She looks just like you! Can you believe it?"

The funny thing was, she could.

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**Please tell me what you think of it so far! Press the review button leave a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello! Sorry it took me so long to update. Hey, at least it hasn't been a month yet. I'm thinking this story might have twoish more chapters.**

**I don't own Doctor Who :(**

**Enjoy!**

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The Doctor ran into a dark room, pushing several shocked tourists over in the process. He was vaguely aware of Sylvia's whining voice yelling at him in the background but all he could focus on now was getting to Donna as fast as possible. He found that staring at a mammoth skeleton was not the best way to do this and began to listen to the blonde's words.

". . . even listening to me!? You're going the wrong way you big alien imbecile!" She yelled as The Doctor zoned back in. He turned around and watched as bystanders gave the woman and her father a wide berth, sending them all sorts of sideways glances.

He walked up to Sylvia, darkness in his eyes, "Do you think for a moment that I would put Donna's life at risk intentionally? We are going the right way! I have my screwdriver locked on to her time lord presence and its telling me to go that way!" He snarled, his voice rising until he was shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Well we might be going the right direction but that doesn't mean we are using the right path!" The woman said irritably, her words surprisingly wise. "If you go that way, you big lug, you'll have to walk through a wall to get to Donna!"

The Doctor looked down, biting on his lips and obviously holding back another outburst as well as trying not to feel like an utter fool for not even checking a map of the museum.

"Do you think I was a horrible mother? I took Donna to this museum plenty of times and if we go that way," she said, swinging her arm out to the hall, "we will be able to get to the special exhibit!"

"Fine," He said, biting his tongue, now was not the time for insults, "lead the way."

The Doctor hated to admit it but it had been an incredibly short trip once he had ceded control of directions to the older woman. She hadn't looked back once and within three turns and a short flight of ascending stairs they were staring at red and black signs for the infamous show.

_She_, of course wanted him to admit it, admit that Sylvia, the human, had bested the self-appointed master of time and space at directions, and she wore a look that just oozed_ I told you so_.

But such petty fights were behind them as they rushed through the door, The Doctor flashing his psychic paper and Wilf muttering something about police business.

The exhibit was mostly empty at the front, but when The Doctor directed his attention further down the sprawling carpet that ran through the whole show he could see a large group of people all clumped around something.

It was then that he ran faster than he ever had in his long life, faster than when he was running from rabid oods, faster than when he sped away from mount vesuvius' flames, faster than the TARDIS could fly, because this time he wasn't running from something he was running _to_ it.

Camera flashes were going off and there was an excited chatter which overpowered the music that hung in the air.

When The Doctor and his two human friends were about halfway to the large crowd a wave of gasps and shouts could be heard and soon all camera flashes ceased. The crowd got awfully quiet and people began to pull out their phones and speak rapidly. They were all undoubtedly calling 999.

The three picked up their feet and forced them to take twice as many steps as they had before in the same amount of time.

When The Doctor reached the wall of people at first everyone just let him through (mostly because the 'police badge' he had shown them) but just as fast as they parted, their heads started to turn from him and away and back again multiple times before another cacophony of exclamations started up, this one even worse than the last.

"He looks exactly like the carving!"

"This is insane"

"_Both_ of them are here!"

"Oh my god!"

"Impossible."

"Jesus christ!"

"He's even wearing the same clothes!"

The Doctor had much more trouble getting through now that all these shocked bystanders were in his way. He had a good idea of what they were talking about, he was a Time Lord with an almost infinite mental capacity, it wasn't _that_ hard to figure out.

_It must be the plaque_, he thought. Stopping short and then renewing his efforts. If Donna had seen the marble plaque already then she would undoubtedly be remembering things by now, even if none of the other artifacts had brought any memories back, which he very much doubted, everything in here just screamed of their adventures in Pompeii, he even recalled seeing one of the circuit board tiles on the way in, this one artifact would definitely bring it all crashing back to Donna.

Pretty soon The Doctor was almost to the center of the misshapen blob of humans and was currently stuck between a rather large lady who had chosen this time to swoon and had nearly knocked the lanky time lord over and a tall, angry looking man who was the kind of person who wouldn't budge of out of your way if you were the bloody queen.

"Enough!" The Doctor shouted, spreading his arms out and pushing both the grim looking man and the dazed woman out of his way. "Let me through! I'm with the police!" He said, flashing the psychic paper once more.

This seemed to work well enough and his two companions just managed to squeeze through the gap he had left in the crowd before it closed again.

The voices of the shocked bystanders came back once again, although this time it was much lower and more subdued.

For all The Doctor cared a glaringly loud rock concert could be going on behind him and he would tune it out, because there in front of him, sprawled on the ground with three women surrounding her was Donna, looking completely distressed and not altogether conscious.

He knelt beside the woman he had grown so fond of in such a short amount of time, the woman who was his first friend in who knows how long, it made his hearts twist to see her in such a state.

The Doctor could see that the women around her were eyeing him suspiciously, so before any of them could ask he said: "I'm The Doctor."

A woman who looked like she was on the verge of hyperventilating turned to him, "Oh good she needs a doctor."

He was about to protest when a quiet voice came from below them.

"_The_ Doctor."

The time lord smiled a weak smile and looked down at Donna, even when her very mind was burning up she still had her own fire left in her.

"He's The Doctor, and he's amazing, he's also . . ." She paused and shut her eyes tight and set her lips into a thin line, trying to cope with the pain coursing through her body, "bloody late." she rasped out in her signature commanding voice.

This made The Doctor smile even more and he ran a hand along her cheek softly, brushing away some of her fine red hair that had been plastered to her sweating face.

"I remember," She said weakly, smiling all the same. Her eyes looked to be staring out at some unseen masterpiece, for she could see everything as The Doctor did and even though it was killing her she loved every second she had with his knowledge.

She did remember, she remembered the tragic day they were forced to kill an entire city to save the planet, she remembered purple togas and smiling Oods. She recalled frozen planets and cursed trains. She could feel the fear that had gripped her heart when her entire life had changed because of a giant bloody invisible insect. She could feel the utter disbelief she felt at Lance's betrayal as well as the complete fulfillment she felt when traveling with The Doctor.

She was The Doctor Donna and for these few moments of revelation she was whole again.

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**Poor Donna! Don't worry I don't think I have the heart to kill her, but I might. You'll just have to wait and see . . .**

**Review fav and follow Please! Feedback is appreciated.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Second to last chapter (I think)! So this ending may be a bit confusing and strange but if you need clarification just ask. I Hope Donna is in character, it was fun writing her lines. **

**Also, sorry it's so short.**

**Have I said I don't own this yet? Well I don't.**

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The Doctor hung his head, it was too heavy with emotion to keep aloft, he had held it high long enough. There was only so much a man could take, even if he was a time lord.

She remembered, his Donna remembered all their adventures. It was heartbreaking and relieving all at once, he wasn't alone anymore (if only for these few moments), but the ginger woman who had once seemed so unbreakable was now dying in his arms. And of course, this was all his fault, he couldn't seem to ever stay with one companion for long until something went horribly wrong, it was such a curse that had made him the distant mn he had become.

"Donna, you have to fight it for as long as you can," he told her, his voice pleading.

"No, not again," she pleaded/ordered, "You- you are n-not clearing out my head again alien boy!"

The Doctor let out an undignified sob-smile-cough and looked down at her ever-resilient face. Her eyelashes were wet with tears but her eyes shone with hope and force.

"I have to Donna, you know what will happen," he said his voice laced with pain and an attempt at control that he did not have at the moment.

He laid his finger on her temples, earning a slight jerk of her sweaty cranium in protest, but she was too weak to fight it.

"Doctor," she said softly, "Please don't, please."

He set his lips into a hard line and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to keep all his emotions at bay.

"You know it's the only way." He said, "You've been in my mind, you think I haven't tried to find an alternative, there is no other way!"

He began to search through her mind, snatching up memories as he went along, collecting them all to try and suppress them as he had before. But this time, this time is was harder. The memories resisted twice as hard, they did not want to be forgotten a second time. Donna was fighting him, and she was winning.

The Doctor was shaken from his losing struggle by his former companion's weak, but somehow forceful, voice speaking eerily familiar words.

"A door, once opened, may be stepped through in either direction."

The Doctor opened his eyes and stared into Donna's blue-brown ones. He had never gotten over that crazy adventure in France, he still was amazed at the wisdom of madame Pompadour. Never had he met a person so adept, so intelligent as the french heiress, and now the woman who seemed to match her intellect, the woman who shared his mind and was dying of it was telling him the same thing as Reinette had told him all that time ago.

She was telling him he wasn't alone and he wouldn't have to be. He knew what she was suggesting and he would not let her risk it.

"No, Donna, no. It could kill you," he said, his teeth set in determination.

She laughed, "Have you seen me l-lately, already dying here."

"No, not if I-"

"No, I will not let you do th-that to me again," she said, and as much as The Doctor wanted to refuse her he couldn't, she was just so . . . Donna, so perfect, it was as though she was meant to be The Doctor Donna, it was like she was born half human and all her life had been waiting for the time lord part.

Before he could even ask, Donna said: "I'm sure." It was as though she could read his mind, she could, she had his thoughts in her head after all.

He was about to ask if she was really, really sure when she anticipated it and said: "Yes, I'm bloody sh-shure!"

"Oh Donna . . ." he said quietly, fearing what he was about to do. Fearing another life would be on his head.

"You are ssssso thhhick," she slurred in response, "Just do it."

Through all this, the crowd, Donna's friends, and Sylvia were completely lost, watching in confusion. Some bystanders wondered if it was real at all, wondering if it was some strange performing arts thing, somewhat like a flash mob perhaps?

Wilf understood what was going on in a vague sense, but he could never hope to match the intellect of two time lords, one of which was his granddaughter.

Donna's friends had chosen to back off, wondering who this strange man was and why Donna had never told them about him, she seemed to know him well enough. June was distraught, tears in her eyes and tissue in her hand. She was clutching Lily's hand tightly, neither of them were quite sure of what was going on, and that only made it worse, they hoped their friend would be alright.

The Doctor took a deep breath after looking around, making sure he made eye contact with Wilf to earn the nod of his approval, he didn't bother looking at Sylvia, he knew she wouldn't agree and frankly, if it meant saving Donna he didn't care.

He lowered his long, thin fingers to the sides of Donna's head once more, brushing her hair out of the way gently. She relaxed at his touch, closing her eyes as well, this would take all her concentration.

Donna felt her entire mind, her conscious thoughts, being pulled upon, it was a sensation that she never could have imagined and would probably never forget. It happened faster than she imagined it would and soon she felt another presence in her head, although she suspected she wasn't in her head any more.

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**So, exciting? Scary? Sad?** **Boring? Confusing? Emotional? Feels?**

**Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everybody! Sorry this update took so insufferably long, last-minute summer homework completion sadly had to come before fun writing times. Also I apologize to anyone who was confused whilst reading chapter 5, what happened was I accidentally said:**

It happened faster than she imagined it would and soon she felt another presence in her head, although she suspected she **was** in her head any more.

**It should have said (and I've fixed it now):**

It happened faster than she imagined it would and soon she felt another presence in her head, although she suspected she **wasn't** in her head any more.

**If that still doesn't clear things up here is the next chapter which took forever to copy paste from google docs because my computer decided to only highlight about a sentence at a time. **

**Also, thoughts are in ****_italics._**

**_Sorry it's so short!_**

**ENJOY!**

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Donna felt strange, different. She felt as though her head was being compressed and her thoughts were being read. She wanted to reach up and caress her aching cranium but found that she couldn't see anything, or hear or smell or taste or touch anything for that matter.

All she could do was think.

_What is going on? _

_Did it work?_ Donna did a mental double take. Did what work? She hadn't thought that thought, had she?

_No, it was me. _Wait, what? Donna's head spun a little, people had always told her she was a bit mad, but hearing voices, that was like textbook insanity.

_And just who the hell are you?_ She thought.

_Donna, don't you know who I am? This was your idea in the first place._ It said.

_My idea? My idea! It was MY idea to have voices in my head? I'm not that bloody insane!_

_Donna-Donna I'm not a voice in your head-technically you're in my head-but that's besides the point what's the last thing you remember?_

Yep, she had finally lost it, because if these were her thoughts and she heard other thoughts that weren't voices in her head she wasn't even textbook insane, she was full-out, mental institution nuts!

_The last thing I remember-hmm, let's see . . . The last thing I remember is going around with ONE voice in my head! MY OWN!_

_I'm not a voice in your head Donna! It's me-The Doctor, Alien boy, Time Lord. Remember?_

_Doctor? What are you doing in my head! Get out! The last time you were in my head I forgot everything we did to-WAIT! I REMEMBER! _

Donna hesitated, thinking to herself, though she imagined The Doctor could hear her anyway.

_That still doesn't explain why you are in my head._

_You're not in your head anymore. This is my head!_ Nagged the thought-Doctor.

Donna felt a pang of fear, the first real feeling she had had since she had been stuck in her own (and apparently The Doctor's) thoughts.

_Where's my own head? _She asked rather incredulously.

_Em-do you remember what happens during a human-time lord metacrisis?_

_Yeah._

_Well that was happening to you. You were burning up. There was nothing I could do. Except open my own mind and let you in. Any of this coming back?_

_No-wait, yeah, a bit. Let me get this straight: I was going to . . . you know, burn up and all that, and there was a fat chance you were taking me memories again, so you couldn't do anything; and, you know, now that I have my brilliant Time Lord mind back I thought it up to transfer my own consciousness into your roomy Time Lord brain using the psychic metaphysical cranial passageway you created when you decided to probe around in my head! Maybe I'm even smarter than you!_ She thought laughingly.

_Metaphysical cranial passageway? _Inquired The Doctor.

_I couldn't very well call in a magic mind bridge, now could I? _She thought, mentally smirking, she had access to all his memories now, she was literally a part of his head, and they would never be separated again, she intended to make the most of it.

_Am I going to regret letting you in here?_

_Yes._

She was beaming inside, cause she couldn't very well beam physically, being in this state and all. What was this anyway?

_You're wondering why we aren't able to move and touch and all those human-y things aren't you?_

He waited for Donna to reply but she was lost in her own thoughts (which he could still hear but chose to ignore).

_It's because we are asleep-well it's more probable that I passed out after we used the 'metaphysical cranial passageway' _He thought sarcastically.

Just as Donna was pondering how useless making retorts would be when she shared a brain with someone, their whole consciousness began to shake. Donna felt her thoughts blurring and sharpening like the picture on a TV screen and suddenly all she could see was white.

They were waking up.

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**So, does it make sense?**

**I'm thinking 1-2 more chapters for this story, depending on how it all ends. As always suggestions and requests will be taken in to consideration,**

**Please review tell me what you thought of this chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Two chapter in the span of two days! Incredible! I guess I just didn't want to waste my last day off, do I wrote. This is most likely the last chapter so Enjoy!**

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The curious blob of humans had dissipated and left in it's wake only five people, well, five people and one pillar of light.

As soon as The Doctor had laid his fingers on Donna's temples everything had gone to hell. The ginger had closed her eyes and her form had gone still, making her grandfather and mother hold their breath as if it would give her more to air. On top of her stillness, Donna's had started to honest-to-god glow.

Her skin was emitting light like a glow stick. At first it just seemed like a flashlight was somehow shining through her pale skin, but it gradually became brighter and brighter until no one in the room could look at Donna without shielding their eyes.

The Five conscious humans in the room had by this point huddled together, their backs turned to the brilliant light and their eyes shut tight. This position is why it took them all several seconds to realize that the room was no longer enveloped in a blinding white light.

June and Lily remained facing away, confused and shocked and scared. Wilf could do no such thing. As soon as he realized that they were in the normal daylight again rather than on the surface of the sun he turned and ran to Donna's side. The only problem was, Donna wasn't there.

When Wilf turned all he could see was The Doctor lying at an awkward angle on the floor, his brow knit with worry. Donna wasn't there, she was missing completely.

The older man fell to his knees, trying not to let tears fall from his already wet eyes. He prayed to god that Donna was not gone for good, that the light was some sort of space teleport or something of the sort, like what happened the day of Donna's wedding, but no matter how hard he tried he somehow knew that that was not the case.

"Wilf-Where is she? Where's Donna?" She asked uncertainly.

Wilf just shook his head.

Sylvia stared at her father's back, unwilling to look at the spot on the floor where Donna, her Donna, her daughter, should have been but wasn't. She refused to just sit there though, if this Doctor man had done all those brilliant things with Donna on their adventures and saved planets, and if _her_ daughter could save the entire universe, then she sure as hell could wake up one man and demand to know what was going on; and she did not plan to be gentle.

The determined mother walked with fire in her step and knelt briskly down next to The Doctor's head, promptly slapping him across his stupid alien face.

When no reaction came she slapped him again.

And again.

And again.

And when she got a slight twitch in response she punched him.

That seemed to do the trick.

The Doctor's intelligent brown eyes opened a crack and he groaned. If Sylvia was more imaginative she may have deigned to notice how Donna-like the man's grunt had been.

"That's right, you better wake up! What have you done with my daughter! Where is she then?" She yelled quickly to his face.

He looked dazed and rather conflicted, but he shook his head once or twice, scooted up into a sitting position and managed to look the fuming woman in the face.

"Mum?" He said.

He might have said more had Sylvia's palm not connected with his cheek.

"What was that for?" He asked, bringing a hand to his face.

"You called me Mum, you think that's funny?!"

"Oh, that was Donna," He said casually, in a tone that implied that Sylvia was an idiot for not knowing, if you hadn't been listening you could have mistaken it for 'the sky is blue' or 'humans have five fingers'. Perhaps that is why he had to deflect yet another smack; didn't her hand ever get tired?

"Stop trying to slap us-me-us-DONNA!" The Doctor said, seemingly having a conversation with himself.

Wilf had by now stopped crying (which he hadn't been doing in the first place, thank you very much) and was looking at The Doctor in part-interest part-apprehension.

"Donna?" He asked tentatively.

"Yeah." Said The Doctor in a bittersweet voice.

"What?!" Sylvia interjected.

Wilf put a hand on his daughter's shoulder, pointing with his other hand to The Doctor. "Um, sweetheart-you see, um-"

"Well spit it out!" She said, trying to sound assertive, but Wilf knew she was confused and scared on the inside, he had raised her after all.

"Well, um, Donna is in The Doctor's head, I think," He looked to The Doctor for affirmation.

"She is-I am," he said quickly. "Yes, Donna is in here, and she is not going to interrupt me right now," He said forcefully, obviously talking to himself and in turn Donna.

So, with intermittent interruption, The Doctor managed to explain what had happened.

After a few moments of silence between everyone, Sylvia donned a look of confusion.

"What are we supposed to call you, then?" She asked.

The Doctor looked confused (two different kinds of it) and thought for a moment. "I hadn't thought of it," He said.

Then added, as if it were an afterthought: "Me neither," he rolled his eyes. "Donna, could you just let me talk? Please?"

Sylvia and Wilf looked at each other, those two were going to be stuck in the same brain, bickering like siblings and nagging at each other for the rest of their long, long life.

"You can call us The Doctor Donna," said The newly dubbed Doctor Donna. "wait just a second, that makes me sound like a girl." The Doctor Donna looked like he wanted laugh endlessly and/or break something. "You are half female now you know." He laughed, "good luck getting a date anytime soon!"

The Doctor Donna laughed, then stopped and scowled, then laughed again, and finally settled for just letting a glare-smirk sit on his face.

The Donna side of The Doctor Donna started to laugh again.

"Shut it-No, you shut it!-You!-No, YOU! . . ."

This continued for quite some time and left Wilf trying not to smirk and Sylvia wearing a frown/grin that suggested The Doctor wasn't the only one with two people in his head.

"You think they'll always be like that?" Wilf asked, laughing.

"Yes," Sylvia replied.

And she was probably right.

"NO YOU!" The Doctor Donna shouted.

Scratch that-she was absolutely positively right.

THE END

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**Thoughts? Comments? Confessions of being in love with this story (just kidding)? Suggestions?**

**Please review and thank you so much for reading!**


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